The elevator parts are all primed and cured so it's time to finally finish these things. I started with the trim reinforcement plate for the trim cutout in the left elevator skin. The plate itself gets dimpled using the #40 dies for the rivet holes and the #6 dies for the screw holes. The large #6 dimples actually warp the inside edge of the plate because the holes are so close to the edge, but this is normal despite looking iffy.
The only catch with the otherwise simple process of dimpling is that the platenuts also need to be dimpled to to sit flush with the plate itself. The DRDT seemed like the best way to approach this, and it worked fairly well. The only issue is that the shape of the dimple dies tends to bend each "ear" of the platenut.
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| Yeah, that ain't gonna work. |
I decided to use the hand seamer to set things straight.
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| A little pressure and... |
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| ...ah, there we go. |
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| Sits flat. I'm alright with that. |
With the platenuts dimpled I could start riveting them in place. One quick session with the squeezer and the reinforcement plate is ready to go.
At this point nothing was stopping me from installing the plate into the left elevator skin, so I did just that. It needed to be backriveted into place, which I initially thought would be an issue since I had already made the final bend in the skin's trailing edge. It turned out to be a non-issue since I could just flex the floppy part of the skin out of the way to accommodate the rivet gun.
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| Now THIS looks like an airplane part! |
The next logical step was to finish the electric trim mounting plate. I dimpled the aluminum angles and the plate and riveted them using the squeezer.
I also tested the trim motor with a 9 volt battery while I had the chance. They white and gray wires were the appropriate ones called out by the servo's instruction manual.
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| Full nose down trim... |
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| ...and full nose up. |
I'll wait to install the trim servo into its mount until it's ready to be installed on the airplane. I want to protect the electronics for as long as I can until everything gets closed up. Though, I did test fit the plate to the skin to get an idea of how things will look at that point.
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| A perfect fit! |
The last task of the day was dimpling all of the remaining elevator parts that needed it. The spars and end ribs were pretty straightforward for the most part, but the E-705 and E-709 root ribs that would form the inside edge of each elevator skeleton had some special considerations.
These two ribs will be riveted to the elevator spars, but this needs to be done with flush rivets since the elevator horns will need to cover this area on the spar. The plans say to machine countersink the spars to allow for flush rivets to be installed which confused me at first. If the other holes for the flush rivets in the spars could be dimpled, why did these specifically need to be countersunk instead?
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| The horn won't sit flush against the spar if flush rivets aren't used to attach the E-709 rib to the spar. |
Digging through threads on the forums, I saw a couple people that said they had dimpled these parts. The best explanation I could find: the spars themselves are easy to dimple, but it's difficult to fit the dimple dies into the small area behind the rib flanges that will connect to the spar. Luckily, I had a solution in the tight fit dimpling fixture I got it my Cleaveland tool kit.
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| With a little improvisation I was able to dimple the E-709 rib... |
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| ...but I had to make some cuts to fit the E-705 rib. |
With that done, I'm glad I made the decision to dimple these. Dimpling seems to be the better choice versus machine countersinking since I'd prefer to not remove any material from a component as critical as the main spar. Fitting the bucking bar into the tight area behind each rib flange should be easy, so the hard part is over.
